Disclosure: Hannah is working/volunteering/something for the Hoeffel campaign

Intro: A little while ago I reached out to some bloggers in Pittsburgh to get perspectives on the Westerners running for governor, since they are so unknown here. Sue Kerr of Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents wrote this inspiring and very well reported piece cross posted from PAProgressive.com below.

It is certainly timely. This morning, the Pennsylvania State Senate will be voting on whether to write discrimination against love into our state constitution, and so I think today provides an excellent opportunity to think about how we, living in a world which still denies the basic humanity, dignity, and beauty of millions of our friends and neighbors, can pursue justice in all our political decisions - especially, as Sue notes, in choosing those individuals to whom we, the people, lend power.

http://www.thepennsylvaniaprogressive.com/diary/2310/the-pittsburgh-quee...

The Pittsburgh Queer Perspective on Dan Onorato

This is a guest article by Sue Kerr of Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents.

I've been asked by progressives in Eastern PA to contribute a guest blog post. So I'm going to share the queer perspective on Dan Onorato you might not hear from the gay Onorato supporters who have the resources to travel across the state to attend house parties.

For the past four years I've been blogging about Pittsburgh's LGBTQ community at Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents. I cover political, cultural, and a wide range of general interest topics. I've contributed to Pam's House Blend and Lez Get Real. I recently spearheaded the second "Blog for Equality" around yet another attempt to amend Pennsylvania's constitution to protect marriage for the LGBTQ community (as I write this, the outcome of the Judiciary Committee vote is yet unknown). Over 20 bloggers, gay and straight alike, contributed thoughts both political and personal on an issue that resonates across the Commonwealth.

http://voicesweb.org/node/3822

Joe Hoeffel, Candidate for Pennsylvania Governor speaks to Voices
Submitted by voicesweb on March 9, 2010 - 3:37pm
by Jordan Toronto

In mid-February, Voices had an exclusive interview with Joe Hoeffel, a Democratic candidate running for Governor of Pennsylvania. Hoeffel has served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Pennsylvania’s 13th district, and is currently vice-chair for the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners.

The paragraphs summarize the views expressed by Hoeffel in portions of the interview that are not directly quoted. They are not the options of Voices or of the writer.

Joe Hoeffel can see why voters are scared, in this unstable economy, but believes that makes it all the more important for the democrats in office to step up to the challenge.

On Friday, the Media and Democracy Coalition stood with SEIU, the Teamsters, UFCW, Healthcare for America Now, small business owners, Greenpeace, PennEnvironment, AFSCME, Change to Win, the Sierra Club, and many other groups in denouncing the regressive policies of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce at its meeting in Philadelphia.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been fighting healthcare reform, climate change legislation, and President Obama's attempt to guarantee freedom of speech and freedom of expression online. I spoke of the growing threat from the giant corporations like Comcast that control the Internet to our freedom of speech online, and the need to make net neutrality the law.

This was originally a comment on the thread about the Daily News articles criticizing the way the city has approached the stimulus proposals in the ARRA.

I wanted to repost this as a standalone because I believe this was one instance of Philadelphia getting it right.

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This year I had the honor of working with Media Mobilizing Project (www.mediamobilizing.org) in their successful efforts at organizing the Digital Justice Coalition, a citywide coalition of Philadelphians ranging from PhillyFIGHT to SEIU to the Taxi Workers Union to the Public School Notebook, to come together to address the city’s digital divide (one of the worst in the nation.)

Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, of Erie.

This is almost impossible to believe - but it's actually true.

About a month ago, the Obama administration announced its intent to write policy that would protect, by law, the freedom that has allowed the Internet to grow and flourish.

It's no joke that such protection is needed. Repression of the Internet by the corporations that control it has already started.

Last month, Apple told a healthcare reform group that they wouldn't carry a healthcare reform app on their AT&T network for 30 million iPhones because it was "politically charged"...

...two years ago, it was Verizon refusing to transmit text messages from NARAL Pro-choice America.

This is an outdated bio of Joe Hoeffel (from his Senate race against Specter, i think, and it stops there) from ourcampaigns.com, that I am cut and pasting here because it should provide some useful background about his history in Southeast PA.

What is truly remarkable, and you should keep this in mind when you read it, is that Joe Hoeffel has served his entire political career in majority Republican districts.

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Candidate: Hoeffel, Joseph Merril
Website: www.friendsofjoehoeffel.com
Affiliation Democratic
Address 1908 Lycoming Avenue
Abington, Pennsylvania 19001-1106, United States
Email info@hoeffelforsenate.com
Born September 03, 1950

Info Congressman Joe Hoeffel is a Democratic Member of Congress from Pennsylvania's 13th District. Hoeffel is a member of the International Relations Committee, and Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

You can go to this rally below.

You can also call or email Jennine Miller at Project Home to help her organize and drive turnout and phone calls and all that good stuff. Jennine Miller jmiller@projecthome.org or 215.232.7272. Project HOME don't stop!

Please post other activities....

Permalink:
http://whatmatters.uwde.org/rally.html

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Essential Services

A couple of weeks ago I got an impassioned email plea from a group called Save Our Safety Net. “The Washington city budget faces massive cuts that would do the worst damage to the poorest members of our community!” it said. “Call council and say that the city needs to raise taxes!”

The email had a laundry list of, indeed, last-ditch social service organizations that keep people from literally dying on the streets. It was horrible. So I, barely in the city a couple of months, did what I was supposed to do: went to the rally, lobbied city council. I signed the petition.

“You know, I just moved here from Philly,” I told one of the organizers. “We just went through this. Same horror movie: lost revenue, no political will to raise taxes, and so on.”

“How did it turn out?”

From The Daily News
The Internet for Everyone
By Todd Wolfson of Media Mobilizing Project and Hannah Sassaman of the Digital Justice Coalition

PHILADELPHIA is lining up for a race with a big prize - tens of millions in stimulus money to expand Internet access. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has authorized $7.2 billion for broadband programs, with everything from tricking out community centers with high-speed lines to mapping broadband availability already on the table as fundable programs.

I work on a lot of things now, and they are all interconnected in many ways, although it’s not always obvious. What holds all of the things I work on together is the principle that the public should have the power to make decisions for itself, without intermediary, and that structures and places that allow and facilitate the necessary discussion and decisionmaking should be free, and protected by law.

I want to write about the casino fight because, as with so many things, the public conversation has become a little amnesiac about what has really happened here.

http://www.whyy.org/support/statefunding.html

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How do you value WHYY?

Hello, I'm Jerry Sweeney, Chairman of WHYY, and I want to take a moment to share with you some important news.

Whether you are a parent who values WHYY as a safe haven for children, a news junkie who can't get enough of the information we provide, or an arts & culture fan who turns to WHYY for enriching programs, we need your assistance.

As you know, we face very challenging economic times. Over the years, we have been fortunate that Governor Ed Rendell and the state Legislature have been very supportive of WHYY and our programming franchise.

This year however, the Governor has proposed a state budget in which he has had to make some very hard choices. Unfortunately one of those decisions includes taking out all funding for public television in Pennsylvania, including $1.1million in funding for WHYY.

Link here.

G-d-it.

When are we going to figure it out???

REPUBLICANS ARE NOT RUNNING THE COUNTRY ANYMORE!!! !@%^!&%!&(^

They fucked the states, they fucked the future, they screwed over schools and educational infrastructure. These people do not seem to realize that America hates them.

They will continue to lose seats in Congress.... but in the meantime, they are going to blow up our country.

And we only really have the Democratic party to blame.

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February 7, 2009, 5:36 PM

What the centrists have wrought

I’m still working on the numbers, but I’ve gotten a fair number of requests for comment on the Senate version of the stimulus.

The short answer: to appease the centrists, a plan that was already too small and too focused on ineffective tax cuts has been made significantly smaller, and even more focused on tax cuts.

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How should we replace the sheep?

By HANNAH MILLER

THIS IS a letter to the people of Philadelphia who don't have power and feel at the mercy of those who do.
Over the last few months, it's been impossible to avoid the drumbeat of fear over the millions of people losing jobs, of the largest U.S. companies possibly closing, of thousands of new applications for unemployment.

Even if you haven't lost anything, or didn't have a lot to lose in the first place, you're probably worried, confused and hoping that the folks in charge come up with a really smart plan.

Well, I have some bad news.

That's not only not going to work, but it's a bit of a cop-out on your part.

Our country is based on "Rule by the people." That's what democracy means. But it doesn't simply mean that you show up to vote once in a while, and then go back to playing with your Wii for the four years in between.

Free of political content

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